It was just over a year on the job for Andrew MacDougall.
So, I have news: MSLGROUP – Andrew MacDougall Joins MSLGROUP in the UK http://t.co/yRMTQBrcMN
— Andrew MacDougall (@PMO_MacDougall) August 14, 2013
Now, Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his chief of staff Ray Novak will need to find Harper’s 8th director of communications in 8 years. Continue reading The PM looks for his 8th communication director in 8 years
In our papers on Saturday and here on this blog, I wrote about Russian President Vladimir Putin, who I believe to be an anti-democratic despot with little concern for respecting the rule of law or upholding universal human rights. Many readers agreed but some did not. Here’s a lightly edited pair of responses which were typical of those who disagreed:
We’ll start with this rant from a computer sciences professor at London’s Western University: Continue reading Readers write taking issue with my piece on Putin-Harper
OTTAWA – In less than a month, Russian bad boy Vladimir Putin will host Prime Minister Stephen Harper and other world leaders at the G20 summit in Putin’s hometown of St. Petersburg.
It’s shaping up to be a heck of a summit, if only because every leader who steps off the plane at St. Petersburg’s drab grey airport will have a giant chip on their shoulder because of their host’s recent behaviour on the world stage.
With Syria and gay rights and fugitive Edward Snowden, Putin has been offside with most of the Western world.
U.S. President Barack Obama just cancelled a one-on-one summit with Putin out of pique over Snowden, a sign of rapidly cooling Russia-U.S. relations.
But Harper and Putin haven’t exactly been getting along either. Continue reading The frosty Harper-Putin relationship: Tales from Vladivostok
I last tried to track Harper’s cabinet changes back during the Christmas break of 2011 when we were expecting a post-Christmas shuffle. Here is an updated version of that list on the eve of what we expect to be another shuffle.
On Nov 7, 2010, here’s what cabinet looked like: Continue reading A History of Harper's Cabinet Shuffles, Pt II
The text of Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s speech to be delivered at 1200 GMT in the Robing Room at the Palace of Westminster to members of the UK Parliament (pardon the formatting hiccups. That’s my fault, not anyone else’s, as I rushed to get this online) . The speech is 3,320 words long:
Lord Speaker, Mr. Speaker, Monsieur le premier ministre, Prime Minister, Lords and Members of the House of Commons: For anyone who fully understands and truly cherishes the free and democratic nature of our institutions and the long history upon which they rest
there is no honour to compare with an invitation to stand here at the very cradle of our political system and to address the Members of the Parliament of Westminster. Continue reading Prime Minister Stephen Harper's speech to the UK Parliament
Prime Minister Stephen Harper: Funny guy. Video surfaces of Harper doing (killer) impression of Joe Clark (not bad) impression of Brian Mulroney and (a bit over the top) impression of Preston Manning. Shot during rehearsal for 2011 election night in Calgary presumably by company hired by the party to do its election night work. So far as I know, this was not shot by an Canadian media outlet.
I’m not normally a fan of going about my Parliamentary news gathering in this fashion but there are some days when there doesn’t seem to be much choice… (see the raw video posted by CBC News above)
Meanwhile, here is the text of what Prime Minister Stephen Harper had to say to his caucus this morning: Continue reading After Harper's speech this morning, we still have questions
Prime Minister and wife:
Compare and contrast: RT @pmharper Happy Valentine’s Day to my wife @laureen_harper_ 1 of fave photos of us together ow.ly/hIiyl
— David Akin (@davidakin) April 7, 2013
Hopeful-of-being-prime-minister and wife:
Compare and contrast: MT @justintrudeau: Here’s Sophie and me getting our groove on to Martina Sorbara.. twitter.com/JustinTrudeau/…
— David Akin (@davidakin) April 7, 2013
Prime Minister Stephen Harper today appointed five new senators including Doug Black (above in an interview with me from March,2012) who got the most votes among all candidates to be a senator-in-waiting in Alberta’s provincial election last year. With these new appointments, the 105-seat Senate is now filled with 53 Harper appointees. So it’s not only a Conservative majority in the Senate, it’s a Harper Conservative majority.
Since taking office, Harper has now made 58 appointments — some had already resigned, one died in office, and one (Fabian Manning) quit and then got reappointed. That means, with 58 appointments to the Senate, Harper has passed Brian Mulroney in terms of senate appointments.
That’s a bit of an awkward accomplishment for Harper who, in March,2004, said, “I will not name appointed people to the Senate.” Continue reading By the numbers: The Harper Conservative majority in the senate
Two nights ago, Ottawa-based APTN reporter (and former colleague) Jorge Barrera tweeted:
Chiefs have been told PM will make statement and leave bulk of work to ministers during Friday’s meeting.
— Jorge Barrera (@JorgeBarrera) January 9, 2013
That got a lot of Twitter pickup, with nearly 30 re-tweets etc.
A few minutes later, after being contacted by a spokesman for Harper, Barrera tweeted:
PMO says no. Details coming
— Jorge Barrera (@JorgeBarrera) January 9, 2013
That one didn’t get so much pickup. Only 4 retweets.
Today, (another former colleague) Gloria Galloway reports in The Globe and Mail that:
” At the same time, the Prime Minister signalled that he would attend only part of the Friday meeting … Many [chiefs] said they were also unhappy to learn that Mr. Harper might be present for just half an hour at the beginning of the talks and half an hour at the end. When asked if that was Mr. Harper’s plan, spokesman Carl Valée replied: “Things are still being worked out at the moment.”
Galloway did not, however, report how this idea — that Harper will spend only an hour with the chiefs Friday — surfaced. Who “signalled”? How did it happen?
I asked the Assembly of First Nations yesterday if anyone had told that organization that Harper would be present only briefly for the meeting and whether, for that matter, the AFN had any other details about the meeting such as where it will be and when it will start. Here’s the answer from an organizational spokesperson:
“Meeting details – location, timing, etc – still being confirmed… I understand it will be a full day meeting with PM and members of Cabinet.”
Again, that’s from the AFN at mid-afternoon Wednesday. Presumably, National Chief Shawn Atleo and other AFN chiefs would have had that same information as they were meeting at the same time at an Ottawa hotel. Where did this “signal” come from?
I also asked the same question of the PMO yesterday — What is the level of PM’s involvement in the meeting? Where will it be? Will it start in the morning? Mid-morning? Late afternoon? — and was also told, “Details will be forthcoming.”
The only thing the PMO would tell me was that Barrera’s initial assertion — that the PM would simply show up,make a statement, and leave after 30 minutes — was wrong. And that’s what Barrera’s second tweet was all about.
Still: I’m not sure why the PMO is being so coy about details about a meeting that is happening tomorrow. Surely when the PM proposed the meeting last week he himself would have had an idea how much engagement he personally wanted to bring to the file. In the meantime, the silence from the PMO on the meeting details makes it easy for those who already dislike the Harper Conservatives to continue telling everyone he’s hardly going to be there.
He may yet hardly be there. But he may not, as well.